Letters to Editor

The struggle of railway workers will get more strength if they go to people!

Dear Editor,

I read two articles describing the plight of Indian Railway guards in your web site. No doubt their demands are not only in their interest but in the interest of railway passengers and people at large. However it is only through pro working people media like Mazdoor Ekta Lahar that Indian people come to know of such important issues. On the other hand big capitalist controlled media always attacks working people who begin their struggles and try their level best to isolate the fighting people. They also try to incite people against fighting workers, and I think they often succeed. For instance due to wide spread and constant capitalist propaganda, people start believing that public sector employees do not work. Hence it is important that the fighting organizations of working people must work to take their propaganda to people. They must organize meetings with people. For example, hardly anybody knows the importance and critical role of railway guards. But if the union of railway guards takes their propaganda to people, they will get their support and the government will be forced to concede their demands. A few months ago I attended a meeting in Mumbai in which Railway Passenger Associations and some railway workers’unions discussed why accidents happen in railways. It was quite an eye opener for Passenger Associations and they promised to support the demand of filling up all vacancies in Indian railways.

I am using MEL as a medium to communicate this suggestion to railway employees!

Regards,

Amit , Mumbai

The Indian Republic

I read the Statement of the CC of the CGPI dated 10-1-2018 entitled 'This Republic does not protect but violates our rights! The Republic is an instrument to divide the polity on communal and caste basis and maintain capitalist dictatorship!' I think it is a very important statement. It has assessed the Republic for what it is based on the experience of the people over these 68 years. The statement has exposed what the nature of the State and statecraft are in modern day India.

The statement points out some very important features which may be listed as:

that the Republic does nothing to protect any of the basic human rights of all members of society, but rather is a negation of the basic tenet that when the raja is not fulfilling his duty, the praja can replace him, i.e., that the Republic of India has no legitimacy,

that the Republic defends the rights of capitalists to exploit all the people of the country, and consequently depriving workers and peasants of their livelihood,

that the program of globalization and liberalization which has been pursued over the last three decades is nothing but loot and plunder, and is managed top-down by the officers of the Republic,

that the leaders of the ASEAN countries who were to be at the Republic Day function would be regaled to India's military might, not so much to impress on them any peacable intentions, but the contrary as India is militarizing at an accelerated pace and is in cahoots with US imperialism, taking India on a dangerous course of fascization and imperialist aggression.

In order to place the above in context, it has been pointed out that India is now under the dictatorship of the monopoly capitalist houses which call the shots at all levels, and carries on by bullet and ballot using its two parties the Congress and the BJP.

A very important issue has been raised – the process of elite accommodation of various communities and castes which actually adds to the discrimination and suffering of marginalized communities. This is a continuation and intensification of the legacy of British colonial rule.

Furthermore, the system is predicated on stripping the people of any kind of sovereignty and replacing it by a system of political parties and personalities who claim to rule in the name of the people. In effect, this continues the system of terrible exploitation which is modern day India.

The published statement is accompanied by two educational items, the first of which traces the history of the constituent assembly and how the constitution came into being with no representation of workers and peasants, and only with those of industrialists and big landlords, while the second shows with examples how the constitution can claim to give rights with one hand and take them away with another. This statecraft essentially translates into dictatorship of the executive with the people having no role whatsoever.

The above said, the dialectical opposite arises as the cry for a resolution, whereby a new constitution and a new republic would replace these based on a voluntary union, where the rights of all human beings, all the constituent nations would be respected. This would require the vesting of the power in the people with many enabling mechanisms including, e.g., the right to recall an elected representative and the right of a nation to secede from the Union. Such a modern definition of rights is the only way forward.

By articulating such a vision, the CGPI is today taking the struggle for a truly modern India forward. I commend the CC on its bold statement.

Sincerely,

A. Narayan, Bengaluru

Violence against dalits

Dear Editor,

The statement of the CC of the CGPI dated 10th January, 2018 entitled 'Violence against Dalits in Pune has clearly pointed to where the source lies for continued caste oppression and fomenting of caste conflicts. Indeed, one of the hardest questions that face the movement today is the issue of caste and class in an old society like India whose development has been quite different from the classical economies of Western Europe analyzed by Marx and Engels. The CC of the CGPI has taken a principled stand on the issue.

Our party has shown that it is not afraid to face these questions and to not be led astray by various diversions thrown in its path by the bourgeoisie. This particular statement has been issued at the time of violence against Dalits who had gathered to mark the 200th anniversary of a battle that took place between the British East India Company with a large number of Dalit soldiers, against the Peshwas. There are those who consider this as a symbolic victory against caste oppression. The statement has pointed out that one is free to have whatever opinion one wishes to have on a historical event. But one is not free to organize violence and perpetrate violence against someone under the pretext of 'nationalism' or 'patriotism' as has been the case in Pune.

The statement points out that even in post-independence India, Dalits suffer from large scale violence, deprivation of rights and are relegated to subhuman existence. They continue to carry out duties that have been historically assigned to them, including less than desirable work. Whereas on paper the Indian State claims to be against the caste system, all its activities are directed at inflaming passions and setting people at each other’s’ throats based on this or that division. The State is clearly responsible for the violence against Dalits.

The State blames the people of India as being backward and has donned the mantle of being an arbiter between warring factions, while in reality it is various political parties that form the backbone of the Indian State that organize goon squads and carry out all kinds of acts of destruction and barbarism, with no fear of ever being brought to book. This has become a necessity now for the Indian State as the resistance to the economic orientation and the concomitant destruction of jobs and livelihood. Large scale insecurity is setting in and the people are uniting to demand a common solution to their common problems. In this environment, there will be more attempts divide and rule by the Indian state.

I second with great enthusiasm the call in the statement `The aim of the struggle must be to establish a new State of the workers and peasants based on a new constitution that will guarantee human rights to all, and severely punish anyone guilty of persecuting or discriminating people on the basis of their caste.' Let us all work towards this noble goal.

Sincerely,

Kailash, New Delhi

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PARTY DOCUMENTS

The first part of this pamphlet is an analysis of facts and phenomena to identify and expose the real aims behind the Note Ban. The second part is devoted to a critical appraisal of the government’s claims that it will reduce inequality, corruption and terrorism. The third part is what Communist Ghadar Party believes is the real solution to these problems and the immediate program of action towards that solution.

100 years ago Ghadar Party was formed by Indians in the US.It was historic milestone in our anti-colonial struggle.

The goal of this party was to organise a revolution to liberate our motherland from British servitude and establish a free and independent India with equal rights for all. It believed this to be the necessary condition for our people to hold their heads high anywhere in the world.

Call of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 30th August, 2012

Working class representatives from all over the country are gathering on 4th September, at a time when a titanic struggle is going on in our country. The struggle is between the majority of toiling and exploited people and a minority of exploiters. It is between the majority whose labour expands wealth and the minority who enjoy the fruits of wealth creation on the basis of their private property and positions of power.